Flexo news

13 November 2006

Hungarian breakthough by Soma

Soma Engineering has supplied its first Flex Midi press to Hungary. It was built to order for the Pandan Group, of Szombathely, for printing on casings for food packaging, as well as shrink BOPP, CPP, PET and OPA film applications.

Comments Petr Blasko, marketing manager at Soma: “The press equipped with casings technology is optimized for printing on difficult substrates, including barrier and thermo sensitive films, lay-flat tubing and organic packaging materials - such as LDPE, PA, HDPE, PP, paper and film laminates. During the development of this project we had to address the difficulties of printing on two sides, edge to edge on a range of substrates, all having their own unique chemistry. The Flex Midi, with its advanced tension control system, provides the stability essential for printing both sides of synthetic materials plus edge printing.”

Balazs Bognar, Pandan's controller/purchasing manager, adds: “We supply packaging for a wide range of products that include soap powder, pet food, hygiene applications and lidding. In recent years, strong market trends for higher quality print and packaging meant we needed to respond to these pressures in order to meet customer demands. We also had to consider the need for short runs, particularly for our casings work.

“We decided to look at the new gearless technology available and dispose of two older flexo presses that could not provide the productivity we needed, and did not have eight colour print capability. Soma understood our requirements and took on the responsibility for the design and supply of the press at a favourable investment cost,” he reveals.

“Taking into account the new gearless technology and high machine productivity, we have now completely reorganized our entire production process and planning, and have trained and added new personnel for this task. Our investment included a new automatic ink dispensing system.”

Primopost's press is a profitable performer

A new Schiavi eight colour EF 4040 electronic flexo press at Buxton, UK, based flexible packaging converter Primopost has been performing “at the highest levels of cost effectiveness and profitability,” according to production director Rob Donaldson. “The printing quality is so impressive that the EF 4040 substantially narrows the quality gap between flexo and gravure,” he enthuses.

Primopost supplies printed and plain flexible packaging for an increasingly wide range of products. Its operations include almost every aspect of converting: from a design service to production of plain and flexo printed films, lamination, coldseal coating, and slitting and rewinding for food and non food packaging applications.

The new 1,320mm web width Schiavi press is targeting the efficient, low cost production of high quality printed packaging materials through innovative technical features. These are said to provide very fast job makeready and change-over combined with ergonomic press systems for time saving and operator friendly press control. The press is equipped with a Deco Art automatic register control system claimed to ensure accurate in-register print throughout production runs and help to minimize film wastage.

Rob Donaldson confirms: “Thanks to major improvements in turnaround times, we are now able to serve customers with increasingly shorter orders, much more efficiently”.

Aegeas advances with Alpha

Athens based wide web flexo prepress company Aegeas Fexographiki has diversified into narrow web printing of high quality labels and packaging with just-in-time delivery. The company opted for UK manufacturer Edale's five colour, fully UV, compact Alpha flexo press, which was supplied through Edale's Greek agent, Graph-Electronics.

The press had to respond to mostly short to medium job runs with quick set-up and change-over. It also had to be able to run both selfadhesive labels and a range of mono web packaging materials. Minimum material waste was also a key target as this influences margins strongly. Major material savings are said to be possible, as the Alpha is only 2.5m long, so the distance from unwind to rewind is much shorter than on an equivalent modular press of a six metre length.

PCMC Germany relocates

On September 1, PCMC Germany GmbH closed its office in Ettlingen, transferring its sales operation to PCMC Italia, in Lucca, Italy, and relocating its customer service business to the Dreieich/Sprendlingen office of MarquipWardUnited, near Frankfurt. PCMC and MarquipWardUnited are both divisions of US based Barry-Wehmiller Co.

“Because of the various commercial and customer service offices throughout Europe, we are in the process of optimizing the available synergies of the Barry-Wehmiller group for our customers,” explains Timothy J Sullivan, ceo of PCMC and MarquipWardUnited. “The combined offices will increase our customer service reliability and availability due to the excellent geographical location near the Frankfurt Airport. Our customers can expect to experience a higher level of service and support as a result of this change.”

Andreas Tingvall, executive vice president and managing director of international operations for

MarquipWardUnited, will assume the role of managing director for PCMC Germany. The Frankfurt office will house PCMC Germany's entire spare parts inventory, all customer service activities, and accounting and payroll functions. Customer service representatives Detlef Rubenbauer and Margitta Becker have accepted positions at the new location and will be joined by MarquipWardUnited associate Gordon Firth.

All sales activities of PCMC Germany have been transferred to PCMC Italia under the leadership of Sergio Casella, senior vp of European and Asian operations. Its territories and customers have been reassigned between Italian sales engineers Chiara De Mattia and Matteo Caneparo.

The new technology incorporates a number of methods to improve the printing of 1-2 per cent highlight dots. The result can be combined with the full range of Esko screening technologies optimized for midtone and shadow reproduction. Using the ScreenManager utility, a tradeshop or printer can create a sophisticated and customized screen set with specific characteristics for each tonal range, says Esko.

PerfectHighlights is available as an extension to Esko's FlexRip, and comes with an optional consulting service to assist in preparing and fine tuning its implementation.

Move to RFID at Nuprint

Northern Ireland based Nuprint Technologies has commissioned one of the latest Mark Andy 2200 flexo lines with an RFID capability at its plant in County Londonderry. The 10in, eight colour machine, fitted with the latest GEW UV system, is designed to accept the RFID in-line module as an original or retrofit. This facility includes the printing and inlaying of transponders in one pass, together with a quality check that tests to ensure the RFID tag is working.

With demand for its work growing fast, Nuprint managing director Gavin Killeen, and fellow owner/director Dr Alan McClure are already looking at a second Mark Andy 2200 to allow them to reap the economies of scale. According to Gavin Killeen, the company has a number of customers on the brink of moving into RFID tags.

Briefly

RK Print Coat reports strong demand in the Far East for its FlexiProof colour communication systems. SICPA has purchased four sytems for China and three for India. It already has three systems in Singapore. Coates and Flint Ink ordered FlexiProofs for plants in China and Pakistan, and Toyo now has four in Japan. The FlexiProof replicates ‘real-world’ flexo operating conditions, as well as offering a multi tasking capability.

Italian press manufacturer, Gidue has announced the formation of Gidue India with Reifenhäuser India Marketing, a subsidiary of Reifenhäuser, Germany. Gidue has also appointed Simark as its agent in Eastern Europe.

Mark Andrews Jr, son of the founder of Mark Andy, joined company president Paul Brauss as the supplier of narrow web flexo printing and converting machinery celebrated its 60th year with a “Diamond Jubilee” event at the St Louis headquarters last month.

US based Tailored Solutions, producer of Label Traxx print business management software for flexo narrow web label printers and converters, has opened a sales and support office to service users in Europe. The new office is located at: 64 Mortimer Way, Witham, Essex CM8 1UJ, UK. Tel: +44 (0)1376 530 046 www.labeltraxx.co.uk

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